KABUL — An Afghan soldier killed a NATO trooper before being shot to death in return fire Sunday in southern Afghanistan, the latest in a series of attacks against foreigners blamed on government forces within their own ranks.
Nearly 20 such attacks this year have raised the level of mistrust between the U.S.-led coalition and their Afghan partners as NATO gears up to hand over security to local forces ahead of a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of combat troops.
In another sign of deteriorating security, the United States is considering abandoning plans for a consulate in the country’s north because the building chosen was deemed too dangerous to occupy.
The U.S. spent $80 million on the project despite glaring security deficiencies in the former hotel, according to a copy of a document drafted by the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
Those problems — including shoddy construction that would lead to a “catastrophic failure” of the building in a car-bomb attack — were overlooked, and waivers to strict State Department building rules were granted as officials rushed to open the consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif as a sign of America’s long-term commitment to Afghanistan, the diplomatic memo shows.
While Mazar-i-Sharif was considered relatively safe when the project was approved in 2009, the memo said, a number of incidents in the city indicate that is no longer the case, including an attack on a nearby United Nations compound in which a mob stormed the facility and killed seven foreigners — three workers and their guards.
Winning over the ethnic Tajik and Uzbek minorities who dominate the north was one of the reasons the U.S. wanted a consulate there. But the site picked was doomed from the start, the embassy documents show.
The compound shared a perimeter wall with local shopkeepers and was surrounded by tall buildings that could be used for an attack, the memo said. T
here wasn’t even enough space to land a single helicopter, so one would have to land on a nearby street, the memo said.
Neighborhood security also was in question. The compound was near a large mosque that is often the center of large protests in the city, and a nearby truck stop and pickup spot for day laborers provided easy cover for surveillance or attack, it said.
The memo, which was first reported in The Washington Post, said the “security vulnerabilities” at the site and increased threats in Mazar-i-Sharif were overwhelming.
